1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system input/output devices, and more particularly to an information handling system forced action communicated over an optical interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One driving force behind advancements in information handling systems is the improved bandwidth for communicating information available using newer communication media and protocols. One example of such an improvement is the use of optical interconnects to send information between components of an information handling system. Improved bandwidth and decreasing costs for optical interconnects have made it commercially feasible to separate processing devices from input/output (I/O) devices. Information handling systems are divided into cable docking systems or split systems where the user interface portion of an information handling system is separated from the processing portion. For example, an information handling system having a processor, RAM and non-volatile storage are placed in a “black box” chassis out of sight and then interfaced with deployed I/O devices, such as a keyboard and display, through a high bandwidth optical interconnect. The optical interconnect sends information as light signals through a fiber optical cable. Specific protocols used to communicate between I/O devices and the information handling system are tunneled within the fiber optic cable using the optical interconnect's protocol. For example, the DisplayPort or other similar protocols transfer information between a graphics controller of the information handling system and a display with the DisplayPort information tunneled through the protocol of the optical interface. As another example, physical system links that would normally be sent as electronic interrupts and electronic signals are sent as logical commands with optical signals and recreated at the receiving device using processing resources.
Although information handling systems have multiple layers of redundancy built into them to help prevent failures, situations do still arise where an information handling system fails to a “hung” state in which the system is not responsive to normal I/O device inputs. Typically, information handling systems have simple hardware devices that allow an end user to force a power down or reset of the system when the system is not responding. An example of such a situation is a hung operating system that prevents code from executing on the information handling system to perform a normal power down sequence. In conventional information handling systems, the power switch of the information handling system typically includes a hardware mechanism that forces a power down independent of software executing on the processor, such as by sending a GPIO or other physical bit signal to hardware or firmware, such as the system BIOS. In order to distinguish a power switch input that commands a normal power down versus a forced shut down, the power switch of a conventional information handling system typically does not send the signal for a forced shutdown until the end user has held the power switch in the off position for an extended time period, such as a time period of at least four seconds.